Quick comment on the detention of bloggers, journalists

Ethiopia detained six bloggers and a journalist on Friday, as reported earlier. The subsequent day another two added to the list.

On Sunday, a Federal First Instance Court remanded the nine detainees to police custody until May 7 and 8. The as the police requested were brought to blogger and a journalist had been added to the list. Though the court appearance was not attended by the public, some social media users claimed that the police described its investigation in vague phrases – that can be translated as – “plotting  to destabilize the country through social media by coordinating with a foreign self-proclaimed human rights activist element – joining their ideas and moneys”.

The bloggers belong to a blog collective Zone Nine, while the journalists appear to have been unofficial members of the group. Three other members of the group were abroad at the time of the arrest.

Here is my brief email comment that I sent to foreign media on Monday evening (with minor editings).

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As I indicated in my news post immediately after the arrest: “the detention caught many by surprise as the Zone Nine bloggers have been inactive [both on their joint blogging platform or their personal facebook timelines, which is by far popular than twitter in Ethiopia] in the past months, except for their activity on twitter. Similarly, [the freelance journo] Tesfalem Weldeyes have been mostly covering developmental projects, though he used twitter to air his opinion.”

Moreover, it was not a public knowledge that Tesfalem Weldeyes have been working with them – something I learnt later. And, his recent stories on local newspapers have been mostly on economic issues. So, it didn’t seem there is an immediate cause triggering the move and the composition of the detainees. Especially, given the PR backlash it entails.

However, recent incomplete pieces of information from different sources are pointing to the relation of the detainee and their colleagues with western groups. At least three or the four detainee (and another two members of the group) have made atleast one trip abroad and to attend some sort of trainings in recent months. Some went several times to several places.

There were also funds from western groups – channeled through different routes – to the detainee. This is not denied by friends of the detainees, though the amount and purpose of the funds will be subject to debate. Plus, atleast one of the detainee have allegedly been the organizer of the recently planned-aborted training by Article 19 officer (the gov’t learnt about it at the last minute and expelled the officer).

In light of these and related information, it appears the group has not been as inactive as initially thought. And, given the police coordination seen on Friday – reportedly the first seven detentions were conducted at almost exactly the same time in difference cities – and other aspects of the execution; it doesn’t anymore appear seem a knee-jerk action rather one planned in advance.

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